6 Tips to make your company's participation at a fair profitable
Exhibiting a trade fair stand at a sector event is the best way to offer your products to an audience of potentially interested people and it is also an opportunity to promote the corporate image, strengthening the penetration of the brand within the target market by making itself known to new potential customers. However, being present is not enough!
It is essential to improve the organization of the aspects that will help you achieve the expected results, such as choosing the best marketing materials to distribute to visitors to gather new opportunities.
Here are some tips to promote your company better before, after and during a trade show:
- Plan well in advance. One of the elements that contribute most to the success of a fair is the initial planning phase. From the launch of advertising activities, both online and offline, to support commercial development, to the sending of communications to the contacts in your database, up to the printing of all the exhibition material necessary to use during the event, it is essential to be well prepared. Give each of these activities time to express their potential and suppliers time to produce the necessary material.
- Prepare the necessary material. On the road map of the activities to be followed up before the start of the event, the preparation of all the paper material that will allow you to offer a professional and captivating image of your company plays a fundamental role. The presence of information material to be distributed inside the stand such as catalogs, flyers, personalized gadgets and brochures, allows you to stand out from the competition. Business cards to be left with the promotional material also allow potential customers to have the information they need to contact you and place a purchase order at a later date. Preparing communication material for events and fairs with the support of an expert graphic designer is essential to produce professional materials with a strong visual impact.
- Set clear goals for your sales force. The promotion of the most relevant products and services for your company, together with the collection of qualified business contacts, are among the main objectives to be achieved by participating in a fair: the contacts collected can activate negotiations, which can subsequently lead to sales, orders or strategic partnerships. It is therefore essential that the entire sales team is aligned with the business objectives to be achieved, offering potential customers one coherent structured communication methodology, making the most of all available channels, both online and offline. One way to encourage commercial negotiations is by planning meetings with potential strategic customers at the stand, even before the event begins. This goal can be achieved by sending targeted newsletters to a selected database of contacts, or by telephone recall activities. The final goal must be the creation of a calendar of meetings shared with all collaborators, which also includes a measurable goal to be achieved: for example, a benchmark to evaluate the result achieved could be the results obtained in the past edition or the number of contacts collected during another event which then became actual customers over the course of the following year.
- Attract attention to your stand. Customizing the exhibition spaces with materials with a strong visual impact, such as flags, posters and large banners, is an effective idea for spreading your promotional message, enhancing your business with respect to that of your competitors. Special events in fact require an original and innovative communication, which manages to amaze the visitor by immediately transmitting the strengths of its business offer. It is possible to draw attention to your stand with clearly visible adhesive stickers, in bright colors, in which to make the logo and name of the business stand out and with which to capture the interest of potential customers interested in buying their products or services.
- A gadget is forever. The investment reserved for personalized items, sampling and corporate merchandising can be a flywheel with which to attract the attention of visitors and leave a branded object that can activate the positive memory of the brand even after some time. Promotional items are a practical and effective method to achieve business objectives: in addition to the information material, essential for communicating the details of your commercial offer. You can give personalized gadgets such as pens, cups, stickers, notebooks and such like, perfect objects for intercepting customers who are less inclined to devote time to the evaluation of the commercial offer on the spot, while remaining present in a possible consideration phase following the first contact. It is easy to imagine why these objects represent a good investment within these contexts: once the event or fair is concluded, the services or products of your company will remain physically present in the daily lives of potential buyers through the gadgets that will be used everyday and also shared with colleagues and corporate decision makers, increasing familiarity with the brand and improving the chances of future contacts.
- Personalized follow-up activities. To avoid frustrating your efforts it is good to use the tools available to increase the conversion rate of potential customers. In fact, as reported by the CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research), almost 80% of the leads obtained by participating in the fairs are not notified after the conclusion of the event. Relying on a professional mailing service to promote your products and follow up on acquired leads is one of the indispensable tools for an effective follow-up plan. Stand out from the competition by sending brochures and personalized envelopes, in which to insert catalogs, letters and flyers, can be a winning strategy to propose again the products and services with which visitors came into contact during the event. For those who have an online business, it is also possible to activate discounts, promotions or other activities on the e-commerce channels dedicated to contacts obtained offline.
To take advantage of all the opportunities that derive from participation in a fair, it is therefore essential to plan the best marketing and communication activities to be implemented well in advance and to prepare all the promotional material necessary to obtain the maximum benefits from the event. MBE Centers offer a wide selection of tools to support trade fairs and events: tailor-made materials to stand out from the competition with direct and effective communication. Contact us to choose the best solution for your business.
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